Pink is giving a voice to the voiceless in her newly released protest single, “Irrelevant.”
The song, which dropped without warning on Thursday, is about reminding herself and others that each individual voice matters, even when others might try to take it away. Fittingly, proceeds from the track will go to former first lady Michelle Obama’s nonpartisan voting initiative When We All Vote.
“As a woman with an opinion and the fearlessness to voice that opinion, it gets very tiring when the only retort is to tell me how irrelevant I am,” the Grammy-winning recording artist said in a statement to Billboard. I am relevant because I exist, and because I am a human being. No one is irrelevant. And no one can take away my voice.”
The chorus of the song features a reference to The Who’s “The Kids Are Alright,” as Pink sings: “The kids are not alright/ None of us are right/ I’m tired but I won’t sleep tonight/ ‘Cause I still feel alive/ The kids are not alright (not alright).”
“Girls just wanna have rights/ So, why do we have to fight?” she continues, paying homage to another classic anthem, Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.”
On Tuesday, Pink teased the upcoming song, sharing a photo on social media of handwritten lyrics on a napkin. In the caption, she wrote: “Woke up. Got heated. Wrote song. Coming soon.”
You can listen to the full song below.